Rugby Movie Reviews: Everybody’s Game

Everybody’s Game is the 2020 documentary featuring professional rugby players, Maro Itoje of Saracens Rugby, Biyi Alo of Wasp rugby, Beno Obano of Bath Rugby, Ellis Genge of Leister Tigers, and Anthony Watson of Bath Rugby.

These men talk about what it’s like to be black men in a UK rugby world and the things that they have observed that might be creating problems for rugby overall.

If you wanted to summate the premise of this movie in one sentence, it would be:

“Stop trying to make everyone conform to a rugby, and rugby conform to the personality of the masses”

Something that is a genuine concern for how rugby is presented in this post-pandemic era of rugby. Inclusion of not just all types of body types of rugby, but all types of cultural and individual presentations into the rugby spaces, without judgment.

Characters that really stood out to me were players like Ellis Genge, who spoke about his hesitation to play rugby because of the perception of “poshness” in the sport and how it wasn’t popular or well-known in the neighborhood he was from.

Ben Obano really took the light with his perception of the inclusion of personality in rugby and the conversations that he had with his friends about rugby.

All in all this movie was an interesting perception of the growing diversity of rugby and what needs to be done to bring that in well. This was a solid documentary, made by a talented future director in Ben Obano.

I really enjoyed this movie. I give it 7.8/10 and recommend that people take the time to watch it. You can find the movie on Amazon Prime.

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